


all hail the underdogs

by valkyrierising



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Ensemble Cast, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 20:24:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5599606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valkyrierising/pseuds/valkyrierising
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She comes up to him after she talks with Coulson and what he assumes they were hammering out the details of her team. There’s a small part of him that is proud of how far she’s come, how far they all have.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all hail the underdogs

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alessandralee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/gifts), [plinys](https://archiveofourown.org/users/plinys/gifts).



> title jacked from x ambassadors 'renegade' and this is to fulfill a bet i stupidly made to write the unwritten skyelance fic i owed alessandra before the year was out! suck it jess! also this shit is set like pre season 3, and includes some references to events of early season 3.

She comes up to him after she talks with Coulson and what he assumes they were hammering out the details of her team. There’s a small part of him that is proud of how far she’s come, how far they all have. He finally gets up and leaves Bobbi’s side, nodding goodbye to Fitz who’s across the infirmary.

 

At a certain point, he realizes that he and Bobbi will never get back to what they had before. It didn’t matter that they were certainly on far better terms than they had been in ages, but it hurts him to think that something he had done was what ends up sidelining her. He’s fine, he accepts this. He’d even been moving on, but there’s something about your ex-wife being held hostage by what amounts to a very pissed off ex-employee that had him drop everything to save her.

  
In the end, he came too late and had to watch her suffering and pain. She doesn’t tell him outright, but he knows that his hovering is bordering on mother henning her and she’s about to lose it. If there’s anything Bobbi hates more than people patronizing her, it’s people fussing over her every move.

 

He’s leaving the infirmary, looking down at his phone when Daisy plants herself in front of him.

 

“Hey can we talk?”

 

“Uh yeah?”

 

“Okay this is probably the worst time to ask this because of everything happening with you but uh, do you want to be a part of my team?”

 

“Secret Warriors?”  


“Yeah.”

 

“I guess, got nothing better to do and I’m pretty sure Bob’s gonna kill me if she wakes up to see me by her bedside.”

 

“Don’t say that,” she nudges him. “We all fucked up. It wasn’t just you.”

 

He snorts but returns her nudge with his own; it’s nice to be reminded that it wasn’t his fault, even though it _was_. He was a lot better under pressure than people would make him out to be, but he knows that whenever a teammate got involved (when Bobbi’s involved), logic flies out the window.

 

This is how he finds himself shifting from Coulson’s team to Daisy’s.To be fair, it’s the beginnings of a new team which obviously gives him so much more to do than with Coulson. However, it still helps him feel better than he has in ages that he has something to do, a new purpose that wasn’t just chase after Bobbi and dance their same old dance. At the time being, it’s him, Daisy and Mack. She goes through and creates a protocol, getting them both to help, something he never thought he’d be creating because of the most part, his job has always been to screw the protocol and do what it takes to get the job.

 

It feels strange, but nice to be rebuilding something despite the fact that they’re down three members.

 

++++

 

Bobbi’s better by the sixth week, walking around with a sling and helping Fitz around the lab and the side project of searching for Jemma. He smiles to her when he sees her standing to side, trying to get Fitz to not shoulder all of the work and help her.  May’s been gone around the same amount of time and he knows that her being gone throws them all off (Coulson’s more irritable than anyone knows). The rest of them are doing what they can, regrouping and fending off the other group that’s been snatching up their Inhumans. At first glance, it looks like everything’s fine but underneath, everything is precarious as they attempt to move without key teammates.

 

He’s certain that Daisy’s about to snap completely one day as he leafs through a folder and he motions behind her back to Mack about taking her out; he’s patiently listening to her talk (or rather, yell really quickly) all of her frustration that has been building up since the beginning.

 

They work like this; Daisy calls the shots, Mack is the general and he helps out whatever he needs to. He is also the one that drags Daisy off whenever she’s got too much steam built up and no outlet. Like now,

 

“Off we go,” he pushes her while Mack closes his eyes in silent relief.

 

“What the _hell_ Lance?”

 

“We’re going out.”

 

“We’re what?”

 

“Not like that. We can if you want to later, but right now we’re gonna get you off base and we’re gonna get your mind off what’s bothering you. The pesky thing about these problems is that they always stay, so you might as well not stress so hard over it.”

 

He takes them to a random bar and orders them chips. She’s been surprisingly quiet and going along with him, which is surprising given how she’s taken up the leader mantle well. It suits her, being in charge. There’s certain people he can tell were meant to be leaders and she wears that well.

 

“So what are we doing here?” She asks him when they get their beers and pick the less crowded end of the bar to talk.

 

“Love, you’re driving everyone bananas on the base. Decided what you needed was a change of scenery.”

  
“That’s oddly very sweet of you. Thanks for taking one for the team,” she smirks as she presses the bottle to her lips.

 

“Nothing about it besides no one likes working with cranky directors,” he says as he digs into the chips. She punches him in the arm before she slings an arm around his neck.

 

“Thanks. It just - it bothers me that there’s all these Inhumans out there who need our help, who are growing by the minute and we can’t do our damn jobs with another task force out there.”

 

“Daisy listen, I know you know this, but I want you to know that we’ve got one hell of an upswing battle as we establish this thing we’re doing. Don’t beat yourself up too badly. What is it you told me a few weeks back? We all screwed up. You’re not alone in this bloody team.”

 

“What a great pep talk,” she grins as she steal his chips.

 

“Damn right it was a great pep talk. Now let’s relax for a bit before we go back.”

 

They play darts for a time being, drawing up a small crowd and he’s not sure what happens, but the next thing he knows is that they’ve got their lips pressed together and his hands around her waist and she’s got an arm slung around his neck as she surges up to kiss him.  

 

He’d accepted that he and Bobbi couldn’t work out like they used to, and he’s not sure what exactly is happening between him and Daisy but he trusts her. In spite of everything, the loss of one team, the addition of another, it sometimes doesn’t even feel like it’s real. But it is and he’s thankful that they’re

 

++++

 

What he and Daisy do is nothing short of what he used to do with Bobbi, but it’s different because they’re not a sinking boat. He thinks that why he and Bobbi were never going to work because they kept clinging to what was clearly never going to work out.

 

He’s under no assumption with Daisy besides working steam off but he’s glad that they have this. If anything, it gives her a place to touch base that isn’t with Coulson, and it gives him something to help rebuild. It’s safe ground for them.

 

Two months after Bobbi’s injury and May’s departure, Coulson gives him the go ahead to hunt down Ward. His exact phrasing is suspect, but the intent is: do not let him get away. He doesn’t necessarily leave the Secret Warriors, but he is working on finding loose ends, which in a way, does make him leave the team temporarily.

 

Daisy reminds him to keep a level head. He reminds her not to manage the operation on her own. She slides her arms around him as she gives him a tight hug and then punches him in the arm.

 

“Come back when you can. Also no stupid shit, employees are running low.”

 

“I will.”

 

He works well with Daisy because he’s him and Daisy’s been tempered in different ways (they all have really) that make her quality leadership material. They’re a weird balancing act. He figures it’s what he likes best about her, the affability and the snark that surround her.

 

++++

He botches Kill Ward 2.0, but there’s something better about it because most, if not all, the team members are back. He shifts back into Daisy’s team and it feels a bit like coming home. Bobbi does better, he knows they all do, with May back and with Fitz’s resolve in finding Jemma, it finally feels like they’ve found their footing.  



End file.
